OUR IMPRESSIONS ABOUT WORD ASSOCIATION AMERICA FROM AMERICAN POINT OF VIEW - patriotic (flag, stars and stripes...) - interested in current events (George Bush, Iraqi Word) - freedom and democracy AMERICA FROM ITALIAN POINT OF VIEW - big - openess to differences - powerful - fast food ITALY FROM AMERICAN POINT OF VIEW - beautiful - good food - culture/ history ITALY FROM ITALIAN POINT OF VIEW - culture/history - good food - artistic attitude AMERICAN WOMEN FROM AMERICAN POINT OF VIEW - lot of references to weight - successful/independent AMERICAN WOMEN FROM ITALIAN POINT OF VIEW - idea of image (bianchicce, belle, sgraziate, rifatte, superficiali, bionde...) - independent ITALIAN WOMEN FROM AMERICAN POINT OF VIEW - references to sensuality and beauty - housewives ITALIAN WOMEN FROM ITALIAN POINT OF VIEW - references to sensuality and beauty - housewives - frustrated/undervalued Task 2 Word association The words whose answers make the greatest impression on me are politics, American men and Italian men. - Both Italian students and American students associate the word politics with these words: complicated and corrupt.The word that appear only once is 'solutions'. - American men are described in a very similar way by American and Italian students. There are little differences. The words that appear most often are over weight, sports, football, carreermen. I think that both American and Italian students describe American men using stereotypes. - The same thing happens with Italian men. The most used words are soccer, macho,masculine, sense of humor. Only one person wrpte that Italian men are 'cheaters' which means dishonest. It's not very kind, isn't it? The three words I chose are "American Women", "Politics", "Immigrants" As you've already pointed out there are many contradictory reference to weight referred to american women; a word that appears only once is mixed races, and there are no other references to the same idea in the other answers. It is quite curious, because i think it is something that could be said of people, but not of women in particular! The main ideas that emerge from American questionnaire about politics are complicated and corrupt.The same idea of corruption is evident in the Italian questionnaire too. What appears in the American side and not in the Italian is the word Religion, I didn't expect such an answer, and we, living in a country like Italy, where religion and government are in strong relation (whether it is good or not), didn't point it out! I was impressed too by the idea American students have about immigrants, how far is from the Italian students'! We still see immigrants as a problem! Probably their attitude is due to the fact that America was "made" by immigrants. A word that appears only once and struck me is let 'em be, and it summarize the different answers! Sentence Completion I chose 'The mafia is...', 'People from the South...', 'People from the North...'. - As far as the first sentence is concerned, I think American students see the problem from a different point of view compared with us. They are more aware of the fact that its a world phenomenon and not only an Italian problem. They make no reference to Italy. Of course we know that it's a stereotype used very often to describe Italy and when someone do not use it I 'm a bit surprised. - In the other two sentences the American students recognised that it was very easy to use a stereotype in order to complete these sentences. Someone refused to write it and someone recognised that what he/she wrote was merely an idea that many people have , but which is often not true in reality. As regard word associations, I chose Italy, Italian women and Individualism. The answers to these words made a great impression on me for different reasons. I found very little differences between Padova’s and Dickinson’s answers about Italy and Italian women. What really surprised me is the fact that the first words that came up in mind to many Italian students were words like pizza, mare (sea) , sole (sun) , buon cibo (good food) or mediterranee (brunettes, olive skin, etc.), formose (buxom) and passionali (passional). I believe it’s normal for American students, especially for those who haven’t been in Italy yet, but I don’t understand my peers’ choices. Of course, in Italy there are pizza, sea, sun, good food and beuatiful brunette girls, but how often do we really eat good food? A little roll while we’re changing room to follow another lesson is not exactly “good food” and 76.8% of Italy of beaches is composed by mountains and hills. Sun? Yes, we’ve long sunny days in summer, but what about fog in our Po valley in winters? Then, I’m surprised in noticing that Individualism generally received a positive connotation in American answers and negative in Italians. I don’t know why, but there’s only a negative comment from Dickinson, while almost everybody in Padova links Individualism with words like egoismo (selfishness) and solitudine (solitude). There’s also something I really can’t understand: two Paduan students linked Individualism with Europa (Europe) and Unione Europea (European Union). As regard sentence completions, I didn’t find great differences between Italian and American answers. I think that we (Italians) probably have a more precise idea about the nature of the mafia, even if nowadays it may have different characteristics (just a little bit) here and in the U.S.. The answers about people from the North and from the South are quite the same: we (Italians) just often point out Northern people’s industriousness and stressed lives and Southern people’s warm welcome. Alberto Questions for Chiara Olivi: - Why, in your opinion, Individualism is seen quite just as something positive in Dickinson's answers? - In a few months both Italy and America will have elections. But as we wrote in our questionnaires we are discouraged by politicians. What Italian and American politicians seem to have in common is corruption. But if you have such an idea of politics why do you have such an enormous campaign machine? It looks like a show and people seem to be really involved in caucuses and primaries. (Serena) -Week 3- GLI ANNI DI PIOMBO/THE YEARS OF LEAD ('70s) To be honest, we don't know very much about "gli anni di piombo" because it's a very recent period in the history of our country and school programs generally don't focus enough on this topic. We know that it was a very difficult and dramatic period for Italy ('70s ) due to acts of terrorism whose purpose was to subvert the political and institutional order. When we talk about "anni di piombo" we immediately think about two main events: Piazza Fontana bombing and the Aldo Moro's murder. You might have heard about the "Red Brigades", the group responsible for these crimes. In those years, there was disappointment towards the government and students were particularly active through manifestations and protests too. It is important to mention the fact that students managed to obtain the right to organize themselves autonomously and to to be represented within the school. Interestingly enough, the "anni di piombo" were also characterised by other important changes such as the legalization of abortion and divorce. In Italy, this has been a very important achievement because of the big influence that the Catholic Church has (the law pro-abortion is under discussion even nowadays!) Nowadays, when we talk about terrorism in Italy we mainly refer to Islam and to the recent attacks not only to America but also to other countries all over the world (Spain 2004 for instance). However, we still refer to "Red Brigades" because the latest act of terrorism happened in 2002 (Marco Biagi). Morever, we still hear from the media about some of the people involved in those crimes. Hence, when we talk about terrorism in Europe the first thing that comes into our mind is September 11, but we should consider that there are also other episodes of violence in different countries (IRA's attacks in Ireland, ETA in Spain, for instance). Do you know anything about terrorism in Europe? When you talk about terrorism what do you refer to?
WEEK 6
1. Compared to the two Italian political programs, don't you think that the American ones completely differ from each other?Brian told us that our assumption was not groundless at all and that the party system in the Unites States is a bit too extreme. Nowadays, it has really become hard to choose between the two main parties and there are no intermediate positions available. Hilary's and Obama's political programs are of course much more similar to one another but if we go and read Mc Cain's, we will find out that his objectives are completely different (especially with reference to the issue of the war in Iraq). So, it is very difficult to feel truly represented by any of the two main parties because they're so extreme and the opinions that people in America have formed on certain issues may be completely different from the ones of the main candidates. He thinks that here in Italy maybe we can have much more choices given the amount of little parties and intermediate positions.
2. Do you think that the question of the troops on Iraq could affect your vote more than other issues such as 'health care' and environmental concerns?
Actually, the issue of the war in Iraq DOES play a fundamental role in the next political elections and of course the fact that Americans have to decide if they are against or in favor of the war is deemed to have an effect on their vote for one of the two parties; in other words, if you are against you are more likely to vote for Hilary or Obama, if you're in favor you would rather prefer Mc Cain (I've put it in a rather simple way but of course things may also be a bit more complicated). Anyway, Brian is keen to point out that environmental problems actually represent a very pressing issue too! Maybe, (to us) it was not clear enough, but many countries in America are nowadays really trying to take the right steps in order to solve the problem of global warming, to reduce gas emissions and to find alternative energy resources, which should obviously be cleaner but also cheaper.
3. Do you think that Hillary's and Obama's campaigns are more concerned with gender and race than mere political issues?
The possibility to have a Black leader or a woman as president is surely a great achievement for America. According to Brian, both of them can really give something more to politics because they can offer different perspectives on a large number of issues. Unfortunately, there has also been a lot of brainwashing from TV and that has contributed to turn the elections in a sort of gender or race struggle. Hence, many people still ask themselves whether these two candidates may have enough experience to rule the country, overlooking the great changes that their election can eventually cause.
Immigration
1. Do you think there is any differences between immigrants coming from Europe and those coming from the other countries (attitude of the popuation...)
2. Do Immigrants manage to keeptheir habits, or do they have to change they way of living?
3.Did you change your attitude towards immigration after 9/11?
Alessia Leonardi
Claudia Turolla
Marta Tosato
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